Manchester United will know a few weeks if German midfielder is available

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Date: March 15, 2014

Borussia Dortmund chief Hans-Joachim Watzke hopes that a decision on Ilkay Gundogan’s future will be made within the next few weeks and confirmed that the club is currently in negotiations with Gundogan and his family again.

Negotiations stalled for a long time this season because Gundogan had been injured but with the 23-year-old close to a return, they have restarted.

Gundogan has regularly been hailed as a potentially great midfield signing for Manchester United this year if he did not sign a renewal with Dortmund and a decision on that could have been made by start of April.

“The fact that we would like to extend the contract of lkay Gundogan is clear,” he told Sky Sport News HD. “But there’s always more to it.

“We also have a certain degree of respect for his long medical history, which of course has charged him and is why he wants to look further into how his body can be kept fit.

“This will certainly not be a never-ending story. We will use the next few weeks together to make a decision and we are in contact with Ilkay and his family, who also advise him.”

Fears that Gundogan had a career threatening back injury were alluded by the midfielder himself and although he has hardly played a minute of football this season, he is still one of Europe’s most wanted young midfielders.

Is Gundogan another Owen Hargreaves? There would certainly be a risk attached to his signing if he were to choose not to sign a new deal with Dortmund but his current season may just have been unlucky in terms of injuries.

Regardless of that, United will have to wait and see what happens with Dortmund negotiations before we can entertain the prospect of signing him.

About The Author

Sam founded The Peoples Person back in 2011 after writing his university dissertation on The Munich Air Disaster. Since then, the website has been creating daily Man United content on everything from transfers and features to full match day coverage.